Context 3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped1 by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all?2
[3:14]1tnHeb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”
[3:14]2sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.